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“World-Renowned” Economist Joins Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

LOGAN, UT – A widely published researcher, whose commentaries have run in several national newspapers, including the “Wall Street Journal” and the “Los Angeles Times,” has accepted an invitation to join Utah State University as a professor in the Economics and Finance Department.

William F. Shughart II will join the faculty as the J. Fish Smith Professor in Public Choice at at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, Dean Douglas D. Anderson said.

Shughart is listed among the top five percent of authors at IDEAS and has published more than 200 scholarly articles, book chapters and reviews. IDEAS is the largest bibliographic database dedicated to economics.

“We are so excited to bring Bill Shughart to Utah State University,” Anderson said. “He is not only a world-renowned researcher, but a truly gifted teacher and mentor who will be a boon for our students and faculty members.”

"Bill Shughart is an academic of the first rank and I am confident that his teaching and research at Utah State will be of great benefit to students and the community," said Menlo Smith, son of J. Fish Smith.

Shughart is the editor in chief of the journal “Public Choice,” a publication that studies the intersection between economics and political science. Shughart will bring “Public Choice” with him to USU.

“It is unprecedented in the history of economics education at USU for the university to be the home of such a distinguished journal,” Anderson said.

Shughart said that he was impressed when he visited USU in spring of 2009.

“I was struck immediately by the intellectual energy evident throughout the Huntsman School,” he said. “The students, faculty and staff there are first-rate and Dean Anderson has set goals for excellence in teaching, scholarly research and service to the state and nation that match my own. I, too, am grateful to Menlo Smith and to the Huntsman School for offering me this exciting and challenging opportunity.”

Shughart previously held three named chairs at the University of Mississippi and also taught at Clemson University and George Mason University. He received his doctorate in economics from Texas A&M University in 1978. Shughart is also the immediate past president of the Southern Economic Association and has served as the associate editor of the “Southern Economic Journal” on several separate occasions. He will teach undergraduate and graduate courses in economics beginning fall 2011.

In addition to his research interests in industrial organization, antitrust and public choice, Shughart has written extensively on tax policy, energy policy, education reform and college sports.

Shughart authored “The Organization of Industry” and “Antitrust Policy and Interest-Group Politics.” He co-wrote with William F. Chappell and Rex L. Cottle “Modern Managerial Economics: Economic Theory for Business Decisions.” He also co-authored with Jim F. Couch “The Political Economy of the New Deal.” He co-edited “The Elgar Companion to Public Choice” with Laura Razzolini and he co-edited a second edition of the same book with Michael Reksulak and Razzolini that is set to be published in early 2012.